Tobacco Smoke Exposure and Pregnancy Outcome among Working Women

Abstract

Among 4,687 women undergoing prenatal care in Örebro County, Sweden, from October 1980 to June 1983, 678 nonsmokers reported passive exposure to tobacco smoke. Of these women, 267 had been passively exposed at work, and the risk ratio (RR) for intrauterine death (spontaneous abortion or stillbirth) among these pregnancies was increased to 1.53 (95% confidence interval (Cl) 0.98–2.38) compared with pregnancies of unexposed working women. This could not be explained by age, previous spontaneous abortion, educational level, planning of pregnancy, or alcohol use. The effect was confined to first-trimester fetal loss (adjusted RR = 2.16,95% Cl 1.23–3.81), while active smoking was associated with intrauterine death after the first trimester. Passive exposure in the workplace was weakly associated with preterm birth (Am J Epidemiol 1991;133:338–47.